Tuesday, April 20

it's getting messy over here

I only show you these pictures to help you feel better about yourselves today. I took them for my own sake, lest in a few months my sleep deprivation caused by a newborn makes me wish for a return to the days of pregnancy, I can look at these photos and remember.

Remember that in my pregnant state I do the very minimum to get by.

Remember that in my pregnant state I haven't cleaned up, or made the kids clean up, the toy room for weeks. I wish that were an exaggeration, but it's not.

Some of you have nice basements or hidden away spaces for your kids to play so you don't see the mess daily. I do not have that. I have a room directly across the hall from my room, and right next door to my kids room, that is viewed often. I see it when I wake up in the morning. I see it after breakfast when I go back upstairs to get ready. I see at night when I put my kids to bed. And I see it as though it's burned into my eyelids when I go to sleep.

Ready for it? Here is what our toy room/everything else room currently looks like:


And don't forget the closet:

It's pathetic really, and at this point I think I've given up on organizing those toys.

In order for our house to be baby ready we have to do some major purging. And I'm just waiting for a time when I can go through all those toys and get rid of half of them without the kids around.

Have I mentioned Alexis is a pack rat? So for her, parting with things (this includes garbage) is akin to a normal person parting with a necessary limb. It is traumatic to say the least.

I, however, have never considered myself a pack rat and try to not keep unnecessary things around. So I realized that I needed to go through all the old girl clothes I've been saving and get rid of most of them. I did that last week and now I understand Alexis a little more! It was kind of hard and a little emotional. And really ridiculous how many clothes I'd been hanging onto. Seriously, can one little girl really wear that many clothes??

But as I went through them those clothes brought back a lot of memories. It's funny how you can associate such a material thing with moments that matter. So I kept all the stuff that really held sentimental value or that I really loved, but the rest of it I'm passing on. I kept thinking that most of the memories I have from those clothes are associated with photos I've seen over and over, but I just looked through old pictures and most of the clothes aren't in them. So I guess they are actual memories. But here's a few photos I do have:


Purple velour pants, ridiculous purple shoes, flower onesie. This was a favorite outfit.

First time swimming
First time she attempted to take off her clothes (while she was supposed to be napping!)

Though I don't really care for Winnie the Pooh, she had a set of three different onesies that she wore a lot, and they were some of the hardest to part with. (p.s. what's up with her hair?)
I just really like this picture! And she wore that sweatshirt a lot!

And this dress was a favorite! I can still picture her crawling around church in it.
Loved this coat! I'm keeping it.

Her first Easter dress. This has been passed on to my niece that will be born in August.
That's enough of that. To sum up:

1. My house is a gigantic mess!
2. Jeremy and I are in the process of organizing and de-junking our entire house so the baby doesn't have to sleep outside.
3. This all needs to be done by June 2nd at the very latest (my induction date!!!!)
4. Alexis has had way too many clothes in her short life span of 5 1/2 years.
5. I am apparently having a hard time accepting the fact that my oldest is growing up.

And along the lines of #5, would it be weird to keep a pair of her first set of underwear in the memory box that I have for her?

6. Sometimes I ask really weird questions.

6 comments:

Amy said...

At least you have an excuse for a dirty house! I have a pack rat daughter too, but at least she's grown out of the keeping garbage stage. I remember when she would pick stuff up off the ground in a parking lot or store floor and want to keep it. Gross!

Jessica M said...

Thank you for posting pictures of mess. I needed Someone to empathize with me today (as my house is a complete wreck). I also enjoyed the pictures of Alexis. Hailey had that same dress Alexis wore on her first Easter!

Adam and Rachael said...

Cute pictures of Alexis! And don't worry too much about a messy room. If there's one thing I've been telling myselft since I've been on bedrest, it's to not sweat the small stuff. :)

Krissy said...

What a fun trip down fashion-memory-lane! Loved it! I have a feeling I'm in trouble with this pregnancy too, because my house is already a mess and I am soooo behind in laundry that poor Jordan has to search for creative outfits every morning based on what color socks may or may not be clean.

Lindsey said...

Keep the undies!! I think that's adorable. Isn't it weird to see your kids as babies and see what they look like now? I see pics of Charlie and think, ya that totally looks like him, yet I can't picture what my girls will look like when they are his age. (I ask weird questions too.) I just thought, I can totally see Alexis as she is now in all those baby pics-even though, dur, it is the same person. Hope that makes sense...:)

Darla said...

I really love getting on here (unfortunately, not as often as I used to) because you're too dang funny!! Oh, you make me laugh. Good luck with that house. No worries-you'll be in nesting mode soon enough...just enjoy two kids while you have JUST two. (;